Water and Ice Party

A few weeks ago one of our friends from the old rental neighborhood asked if we would be willing to share our pool for a birthday party. Of course! So Saturday evening we had a party! We ended up having some of the festivities inside since it was so hot. We had a record high of 119º.

Annabeth and I stayed inside most of the evening. The pool was the place to be! The Kona Ice truck pulled into the guest house driveway to bring special birthday treats! I had never heard of Kona Ice. It was a big hit. I know I enjoyed mine! It's basically like a snow cone or shaved ice that you get to put your own flavors on.

Annabeth enjoyed her first Kona Ice too! She got orange and was pretty sad when it was gone.

The party wrapped up about 8pm or so. I put Annabeth to bed and then we had a little after party with a few of our friends from the old neighborhood.

Field Trip #3: AZ Museum for Youth

For our third field trip we went to the Arizona Museum for Youth in downtown Mesa. This field trip was in the afternoon so we asked Grandma Molly and Grandpa John to come sit with Annabeth so she didn't have to miss her nap. They helped her finish up her lunch and put her down for her nap.

I fed the boys lunch a bit early and then we drove to "town". I forget how far out we live until I have to go somewhere. It took us about 40 minutes to get there. We were the first ones there. We spent some time watching a cool marble machine they have in the lobby while we waited for the rest of our group.

The kids enjoyed themselves. A favorite was the big "lite brite" like display. The kids had a great time making designs. Several of my boys also spent a good amount of time playing Legos despite the fact they can do that at anytime at home!

They spent some time making art... drawing and mosaics. Another big his was the dress up clothes. They had costumes from several movies. The boys dressed up as Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. as well as some characters from the Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland.

The current theme of the museum was "Dreams". The big display in the middle was a cloud sculpture. There were markers for the kids to write on the cloud.

We made our way home, stopping for a special slushie treat at Circle K. Annabeth was already awake and happy to see us when we got there. She was a good girl for the grandparents and talked the rest of the night about sitting on the couch with Grandma and Grandpa.

Everyone had a good time and, of course, all of it was more fun because we were with friends! But later I joked with Jerry that if he ever loses his job we can buy some Legos and dress up clothes and charge people to come play at our "Youth Museum".

Field Trip #2: Bashas' Grocery Store

For our second field trip we went on a tour of Bashas' Grocery Store. We started in the bakery where everyone got to decorate a mini-cupcake.

The boys had fun with that, but Annabeth really enjoyed herself! She put on the sprinkles so carefully, then ate them off the top of the cupcake in one big bite! In fact, she liked the cupcake so much she even tried to eat the liner!

Then we moved on to the deli where everyone got a sample of cheese.

We got to go in the back and see the machine they use to crush all the cardboard boxes for recycling.

When we got to produce everyone got a carrot stick. We passed by the bank but, unfortunately, they weren't giving out samples! We ended the tour with a sample smoothie from Starbucks. Annabeth was a big fan!

Baby's First Starbucks

Weekend Getaway Part 5: Wrap Up

It was a busy weekend. The reunion, the Grand Canyon, and a stop on Route 66. We also did a lot of dining al fresco. We worked our little camp stove pretty hard all weekend. Camp fires were restricted so we didn't count on them for cooking meals. We were able to have them in the evening with a wink from the KOA and a promise to keep them small with water nearby.

First Breakfast

Last Dinner

Yum!

The campground offered a "hayride" on weekend evenings. We just went around the campground once on a flat bed trailer pulled by a tractor. The young lady sitting next to us really loved our shirts. She said she'd seen so many throughout the campground!

The best part of the hayride was waving to our family members as we went by. Cousin Tom caught this one of us being silly...

There were a few games of horseshoe. Jerry and I also played a few rounds of Shut Box one night. Jerry's family is known for playing cards but we didn't manage to squeeze any card playing in this time.

Annabeth and the boys got in some games of the electronic sort. Actually, I don't even know what she is doing here. She just likes to tap apps on the iPad. It was past her bedtime and I was stalling until the boys got back to the cabin to get in their jammies. I didn't want to put her to bed and them have them come "home" and wake her up.

Late at night

First thing in the morning

Annabeth was good for most of the adventure, but she didn't much care for sleeping in the Pack N Play in a one room cabin with the rest of us. The first night she cried a good long while before dosing off. She finally fell asleep only to wake up crying again halfway through the night. I ended up bringing her to bed with us which meant she slept great but Jerry and I didn't. The second night was better, probably because she was just so exhausted. The third night was similar to the first. We were all glad to be back home as far as sleeping was concerned!

When we woke up Monday morning we found two horses had moved in behind our cabin. That explained the noise that sounded like someone going to the bathroom outside my window in the middle of the night! I thought our new neighbors didn't feel like walking to the bathroom! The woman who owns the horses was very nice and shared some information about them with the kids.

A few more minutes to play with cousins while mom and dad packed up the van. Then it was time to head back home.

We stopped at a Pizza Hut in Anthem for the lunch buffet. Then got back in the van to make it home in time for Annabeth to take a much needed nap in her own bed.

The worst part about taking a little vacation is getting everything put away when you get home. It took me several days to work through the laundry and get rid of the piles of stuff that needed to be put away. I will say... it sure takes a lot more stuff to go camping with eight people than it does three! But we would like to do it more. We had a lot of fun and there are plenty of places to explore!

Blog Book

Another year is in the books! I finally finished the blog book for 2011. I'm only two years behind... that's not too bad! It took me awhile to get it done, mostly because I still had to write a few of the posts from 2011. A few family members have told me it's cheating back date the posts, but I had plenty of photos to remind me and, in some cases, had notes that I jotted down about things I wanted to remember. I'm pretty sure in the year 2041 no one will care!

Now I have to get working on 2012. Thankfully, I have been doing a better job in 2013 so when the year is over I won't have to play catch up.

Field Trip #1: Peter Piper Pizza

One of the moms from the old (rental) neighborhood has been organizing field trips this summer and she was nice enough to include us. Our first field trip was to Peter Piper Pizza. A childhood favorite of Jerry's! For those of you who don't know, it's similar to Chuck E. Cheese (minus the big dancing mouse).

We got a behind-the-scenes tour of the kitchen. We went into a small room where a guy works all day just rolling out the dough. Each huge pile of dough makes 27 pizzas!  He has to use just the right amount of flour or the dough will stick together and he'll have to start all over.

The kids watched as the dough moved back and forth through the roller.

Then we checked out the biggest cheese grater we've ever seen. I didn't think to ask why they don't just buy it already grated.

We got to step into the walk-in refrigerator and Annabeth asked for a jacket! Then it was time for each kid to make their own pizza.

I'm pretty sure the kids didn't follow these careful instructions! But they did have a lot of fun! 

The pizza went into the oven and while they cooked the boys used some token to play games.

Wesley was nice enough to let Annabeth use one of his tokens to ride the little carousel. She also enjoyed sitting in this little truck even though we never put in a token.

When the pizzas were ready it was time to eat!

Thanks to Shannon for inviting us and for taking some of these photos!